[D'sP] Invitation Time - Chapter 371

Ace managed to have the big meeting. The problem was that only Bennett town saw eye to eye with him. So while it was nice to actually meet everyone, the politics ran thick and not much got done before, after a week, everyone dispersed to return to their own settlements before the event.

After that, time passed as all over the planet, people plotted, planned, and prepared. This would be the first truly worldwide event since the coming of magic and the system. While the fallen community was the first, it wouldn’t be the last and those in less than stable situations eyed the list of refugees as a potential source of relief. After all, having more bodies to throw at a problem couldn’t hurt.

Though, just as equally, there were places scoffing at even the idea of inviting people into their community. Whether this was because of simple things like not having enough food as it is, some even wondering what the failure conditions are so they might force it to potentially end up somewhere better. Others, however, had much worse reasons.

Whether it was a community taken over by a single group; ethnic, racial, or religion. Though on the religion side, more than a couple places were looking to snaffle up new converts. Or some communities that looked down on those clearly weaker than them, after all, their community had failed. Suffice it to say, if you had asked ten communities why they made their decisions, you would get thirteen different answers.

And so finally the big day came and the world was forced to once again come to terms with just how much power the system had. Because this wasn’t some moment where a blue screen popped up with a chat or even a portal appearing to invite you through. No, without notice or the people even noticing it, all the people who had a desire to invite people and could support it were elsewhere.

This didn’t just mean people like Ace or even those who were in charge of a settlement, but not recognized by the system. It included traders looking for a new guard, a farmer who wanted someone to help come spring, and even a couple of people looking to use the event as a chance to find love.

What it didn’t include? Those with a darker goal. Religions looking for converts, forceful or not? Fair enough, but if they are actually looking for some fodder to sacrifice? They weren’t given a seat at the table, even if the system recognized them as being in charge of a town. After all, the system’s goal was to acclimate the entire world and while sacrificing your fellow man to dark powers certainly happened out there, it didn’t exactly give the person being sacrificed a chance to acclimate.

Though more disturbing? When people recovered and attempted to chat, they found a number of restrictions were in place. For instance, they are incapable of saying anything that would even hint at where they might be located. Which really killed the usual small talk about the weather. Can’t exactly complain about how hot or cold it was when that might help determine which side of the planet you were on.

On the other hand, the system did provide some assistance. Stuff like perfect translation of speech. Well, perfect translation of speech into system common as well as the ability to understand it. A disturbing side note, the translation happened in the mind so that you couldn’t attempt to puzzle out what language someone was speaking. Even gestures were translated.

However, what everyone could talk about? Who they were looking to invite. Maybe they give exact reasons for them, but at least the name was possible. And so it was soon figured out that many of the people there are aiming for the top ten percent.

Ace graciously stepped aside and promised not to go after a single one of them. This made him both friends and enemies. Though they all believed him, as when he made the promise, the system visibly gave him the option to limit himself from inviting them or having others invite them for him. Ace, of course, selected yes.

Why did some people hate him for this? Simple enough, jealousy. If Ace was so willing to give up on inviting the most powerful people, it was assumed his town was in such a good position he didn’t need them. Which is true enough, even if that wasn’t why he went through with it.

Though with him as an example, many other people began to make various system backed deals. However, most weren’t so restrictive. Promising things like not trying to recruit someone another person wanted before they took a crack at it, generally with a reciprocal promise about another person. It got quite complex, so thankfully the system was keeping track of it all.

Ace didn’t particularly make all that many deals with Camila and Melonie following suit. Without the ability to know where anyone else was besides those from their own community, they didn’t see much use in making deals. Now, they didn’t snub people either. This was actually how most of their deals ended up being made. Those few dead set on particular people coming up to them and asking if they would let them have a first crack at someone.

Of course, since most people were aiming for the top ten percent, those who approached them for such matters were few and far between. However, that was still quite a few people. After all, there were thousands of people in this place.

And “place” was as good as anyone could describe it. While where they found themselves wasn’t one of those cliche infinite white spaces. It also wasn’t wasn’t that. Later on, Ace and many others would come to assume it actually looked like something, but the system erased their memory of it. Except, that very much wasn’t the case.

While it existed as a location, this place was light on the classic laws of physics. This was how everyone had been able to do all the talking they needed without feeling that it took over long. Time wasn’t frozen or slowed down, rather, the place was timeless. A fun planar mechanic at the edge of the yin yang of time. Wherein both extremes, time stop from within and without, met. In a way, they had an infinite amount of time to get everything figured out, though for reasons of personal sanity, it was over much quicker than that, for whatever that means in such a place.

Then they were on to the actual invitation of people, during which the system took full advantage of the timelessness. Unnoticed by the participants, the system was literally running the invitation section as a sort of turn-based event. Everyone met with their first target and then had as much time as they wanted to try and make a deal.

They could even include others in on it, whether inviters or invitees. It was just that those invited in would have finished with whoever they had been talking with. Then once all of the first round of invitations finished, the second round would begin, with no one having had to wait, even if someone tried for relative days to try and get someone.

This continued until all those looking to invite the refugees had been able to talk to everyone they wanted. Then and only then were the refugees allowed to make their final decision. The only caveat being that they had to go with someone. This actually ended up netting Ace a number of people, if only because he wasn’t forcing any sort of limits and was fine if they just left his town as soon as they arrived.

Ace was mostly doing this because of arrogance. After all, he had a dungeon and crafters were thriving in his town. Maybe a few of the ones who go with him leave right away, but he believed that they would come back once they realized how good his town had it. Though even if they didn’t, at least they were in his community. Which, seeing as his town was a major source of food, they’d be enriching his town no matter what. After all, everyone still needed to eat.

Of course, Ace’s biggest problem was the deerkin. He didn’t hide anything, Camila didn’t even do her own interviews, instead staying with him the whole time. So to say they were skittish about joining his town, would be an understatement. However, his willingness to bring in whole families ended up working out in spades.

While the actual families were generally inline with what Ace was used to, the deerkin placed much importance on “the herd”. What Ace recognized as the extended family. This seemed to represent about four generations, though with the whole end of the world thing, the oldest generation was noticeably lacking.

And Ace’s acceptance of entire families didn’t just help with the deerkin. He managed to snag many humans and raccoonkin because of it as well. For some reason, they didn’t seem to like it that when being invited, their families tended to be an afterthought to the person inviting them, if mentioned at all. Ace, on the other hand, started with extending the invitation to their whole family if they wanted that.

Of course, there was a limit to how many people Ace could invite. That was a pretty big limit, mind you, but he still ended up reaching it. While the exact population of Wolf’s Rest was hard to pin down, adventurers coming and leaving at random. Ace ended up pretty certain that he had managed to double or maybe even triple it. And that was when he openly admitted that they wouldn’t have housing. Though the system backed promise to get some built, helped.

In fact, more people wanted to join his town than the system would let him accept. This ended up with a good bit of overspill into Bennett town. Even the places far from his town, but still in the Wolf’s Rest community, tended to have more success inviting others as long as they didn’t try to trap the refugee in their settlement.

Not that Ace and the rest of the places in his community were accepting people without thought. Ace had kept Camila with him for more than just letting the deerkin know about them. No, she was there as a barometer. A decent number of honestly talented crafters were turned down when they even hinted at there being a problem with the kin.

Not just that, but Ace made sure to let others in his community know he didn’t want them. Though there still were a couple off to the side settlements that ignored him and attempted to take those people in. They mostly didn’t succeed as it was quite clear they were not doing so hot. It seems that being disfavored by Ace tended to also coincide with not having enough food for everyone in your settlement. Almost as if having control of food production was important.

Whatever the case, the event ended and everyone was back where they started. Well, except for the refugees. They were all now somewhere new. For those that decided to accept Ace’s invitation, that was a large cleared area that until recently was the town.

In fact, just yesterday, those houses were still standing. Ace had decided to use the cleared space as the landing pad for all the refugees. Though it did mean they were quickly ushered out of the area so construction could begin. They had been warned of this though, so while still chaotic, it was not a surprise.

Those among them that had skills for building stuff were separated out to help speed up the process. The refugees that couldn’t help with that had another task. They were to line up and describe everything they had seen of where the system had kept them. Because of course they hadn’t been allowed to do so before now. The system was only going to let people get an idea of what to expect in the upcoming quest if they actually invited some refugees in.

You're Not A Space Station - Chapter 370

What The Refugees Saw - Chapter 372